By Seth A. McConnell

This is hands down the LOUDEST shirt ever made… and there were four guys on a team wearing them.

In any other shirt this would be a nice quiet moment of reflection…

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

So I think I finally got what I was looking for… Well almost. I still want the players in front of the goal battling it out and it would be nice if the Rush either scored a goal or a nice shot of Beaudry blocking one in a scrum in front of the net. This worked really well for last night though as the Rush pounded six shots past the New Mexico goalie.

I have four new goals. 1) a tight shot of a player getting checked into the boards from ice level with fans reacting on the other side of the glass (flinching, rearing back, etc…) 2) a player getting checked hard into the boards from overhead (fans reacting on the other side of the glass would make it a perfect shot)  3) a fight shot from overhead 4) a really tight fight shot from ice level. There are 15 home games left including tonight so hopefully I can make all of these happen.

I’m collecting shots for a special project at the end of the season. I’m pretty excited about it. Its coming together pretty nicely.

By Kristina Barker

Here are a few outtakes from shooting State of the State in Pierre on Tuesday.

By Kristina Barker

Sometimes there is only so much you can do to plan how you want a shoot to go. The great thing about portraits is that as the photographer, you have complete creative control over the shot. You can set up everything. Every last little bit. Which for me, is a huge shock to my system. And it’s something I need to really work at. I have a hard time setting everything up. It’s almost a creative overload. It’s something that I need a lot more practice with. Pushing myself with my portraiture will be a big goal of mine for 2009. But Carter Mitchell was an awesome sport for this shoot. He was comfortable, charismatic, patient. And that definitely helped me slow down and think about how I wanted to set up what I had conceptualized before the shoot. This didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted to, but it came close. And I was kind of proud of that. Ryan took a great portrait last week of Rushmore Thunder player Alex Ferdinand, and I felt like I needed up push myself a lot more to prove to myself that I’m capable of that kind of portraiture. I can’t say I totally succeeded, but I do have a little more confidence for next time. Also, I think I just much prefer shooting outside. Can’t win ‘em all though.

So, lesson learned. Planning ahead can really help you out in the end.

By Seth A. McConnell

I was going for a certain shot tonight and it just didn’t come together for me. I really wanted to make an image looking straight over the goal and hoping that I could get at least one Rush player trying to hack it in but unfortunately the Rush didn’t produce much offense in the last ten minutes.

I got the desired results last night, kinda. The Rush won last night and lost tonight so this image would’ve illustrated tonight a little better.

I guess I’ll just have to keep trying and see if I can get that one stellar high image.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

I’m really starting to enjoy shooting from the tunnel before the game and between periods. Desantis slugged it out with a Wichita player last night at the end of the first period I was on the wrong side of the arena to make an image but I did manage to make a couple frames when he came off the ice. I was a little disappointed at first thinking I had missed the shot that I wanted, which was the fight, but I think this image is a little more telling of the battle that just took place. We always see the blows exchanged but we often don’t get to see the aftermath.

I continued to follow him down the hall for a short ways before the rest of the team joined him. I’m shooting tonights game as well. It should be another good one and judging from last nights contest it should be another physical one. Hopefully they square off in front of me tonight and not on the opposite side of the arena.

-S

Made this portrait today of George, but it didn’t quite fit into the edit. Thought I’d share it here. George has had two strokes. He’s really mobile, still plays the organ, and has a great sense of humor about him.

by Kristina Barker

By Seth A. McConnell

Often the hardest part of shooting breaking news is knowing that it is usually adversely affecting someone.

I spent a couple of hours making images at the house fire on Haines this afternoon. Normally I would’ve split after making a few images as it was just smoke pouring from the building and no flames. The RCFD also looked to have a handle on the situation but the flames kept flaring up and I knew if I hung around they would eventually be coming out of either the roof or one of the windows. The fire dept. did an amazing job of knocking the fire down and trying to keep it under control but it became a lost cause and letting it burn was the only way to get it under control.

-S

Shooting portraits can be a challenge. Often,  you don’t have much time with the subject. This was one of those times. I had about 15 minutes, this included set up time, to come up with a good idea. I thought this was a success.

- Ryan

By Seth A. McConnell

Have I mentioned I love shooting hockey yet? A year ago I would’ve told you it was the worst thing in the world. Up to that point I had only shot rec league hockey in a venue lite like a cave. It’s become a challenge to make different photos every night. You can only take so many shots of people getting smashed into the boards before it gets a little old and predictable. Tonight was predictable but I decided to shoot wide behind the glass to change things up just a bit.

Its nice when the  guys battle for the puck right in front of you.

They gave Beaudry a rest tonight and threw in Ramage who despite giving up two goals in the first was a brick wall in the second, blocking 19 shots. I was trying to make a shot of him in the third from in front of the net and it didn’t work out quite like I wanted it too. Plus the Rush controlled the puck most of the period. So maybe tomorrow night.

The Rush did pull out the win with a score of 4-2 for their second win in a row. Hopefully they can pull out number 3 tomorrow night against the struggling Oilers. It would also be nice if there was a fight… I haven’t shot a decent fight in 4 games. With the way Tulsa has been playing I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a fight out of frustration. (The Tulsa radio announcer told me tonight they had a fight in the bus on the way up here. So the fight may be between teammates…)

I love shooting hockey!

-S